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The Problem With Including Standardized Test Results As Part Of “Multiple Measures” For Teacher Evaluation

There’s a lot of discussion, and actual implementation of, standardized test results as part of “multiple measures” for teacher — and for principal — evaluation.

Among other points, proponents suggest that no one is suggesting that they count as one-hundred percent, only a portion — usually somewhere between twenty and fifty percent.

That sounds very reasonable, doesn’t it?

Except that it isn’t….

Once you include test scores, no matter what percent you include, many teachers will tell you that it quickly becomes the “tail that wags the dog” — it always stays in the back (or front) of your mind. And, once it becomes part of an administrator’s evaluation (as some districts might or might not do as a “back-door” strategy when they can’t get an agreement to use it with teachers), as one administrator told me, it immediately tends to distort the principal/teacher relationship — teachers can become immediately suspicious of advice and counsel from their principal because they’ll be wondering if the advice is being given to help the teacher genuinely grow in their craft or if it is being offered to increase test scores.

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One Comment

Larry, you are so right on this. There is something so tempting, and seductive about the “numbers”. Even though it’s the hardest thing for a teacher (or administrator) to “move” it’s more tempting to try to change that test score than to invest in less “quantified” but higher impact things, like instructional methods, etc It’s a distraction we don’t need, It’s a distraction that students and schools don’t need. Just say no to VAM!

My Second Book On Student Motivation!

My Second Book On Teaching ELLs

My book, "The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels," (co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski) was published in the Summer of 2012